The USGenWeb Project & USGenWeb, Inc.

The purpose of this announcement is to assure the
volunteers of The USGenWeb Project and the Internet genealogical community that The USGenWeb Project is committed to continuance as a *Not-For-Profit* organization. Recent events have made this announcement necessary. These events actually occured in early 1998. However, there is still so much controversy surrounding the use of certain servers and how this will effect The USGenWeb Project. The basics outlined in this message still hold true and we do want all volunteers and USGW users to be reassured that our position has not changed.

History of the Project:The USGenWeb Project was established in June 1996 with
the goal providing Internet-based *FREE* access to genealogical
resources on the web. Since then, the Project has grown to include
about 3,050 of the 3,137 counties in the United States. The associated Archives Project, as of April 1, has over 588 megs of data in text format for FREE downloading. That doesn't include images of actual documents. Other major projects include: The Census-Online Project, The Tombstone Project, and The Military Records Project. It is estimated that over 1,641 volunteers are involved in the various aspects of The USGenWeb Project.

Until recently (March 22, 1998), The USGenWeb Project's
main webpages were mirrored at three sites: www.usgenweb.com on
the USRoots server, www.usgenweb.org and www.usgenweb.net on the
RootsWeb server.

Unfortunately, due to actions taken by three volunteers, the
webpages located at the www.usgenweb.com domain name have been
discontinued. Volunteers for The USGenWeb Project should
use either usgenweb.org or usgenweb.net as links in their websites
and make any changes as soon as possible.

A brief history of the events leading to this situation are
outlined below for those who may be interested:

USGenWeb Inc. Formed Without Board Knowledge:
On January 1, 1998, Jerry and Lucy Dill and Pat Smith incorporated
(unknown to anyone on The USGenWeb Project Advisory Board)
themselves as a *FOR PROFIT* corporation called USGenWeb, Inc.
When this was discovered by the Advisory Board on March 16, 1998, it came as a great shock since one of the main webpages (www.usgenweb.com) was located on a domain maintained by one of the incorporators. The immediate concern was that volunteers and users of the website might get the wrong impression that The USGenWeb Project had become a for-profit organization, which is NOT true.

USGenWeb Inc. Claims Ownership of The USGenWeb Project:
The Advisory Board held email conversations with Mr. Dill,
and during those conversations, it became clear that while he
apologized for his actions and gave assurances that he meant
no ill, he was unwilling to agree that the usgenweb.com designation
was anything less than his property (or more specifically, the
*property* of his corporation, USGenWeb, Inc.).

On the other hand, the individuals who had registered usgenweb.org
and usgenweb.net both publicly stated that those designations
*DO* belong to The USGenWeb Project, and that they act
only in a custodial capacity for the benefit of The USGenWeb
Project and its users.

During the course of the same email conversations, Mr. Dill
offered to sell USGenWeb, Inc. to the Advisory Board for $750
(the incorporation fee). However, he stated that the Advisory
Board would have to be reorganized on his terms. The current
Advisory Board flatly refused to accept this demand and the offer
of USGenWeb, Inc. The reasoning of Board was that it didn't matter
who owned USGenWeb, Inc. It's a "for-profit" Subchapter
S Corporation and no matter the reason for
its incorporation, as long as it was associated with The
USGenWeb Project, it would imply that the Project was also
"for-profit."

USGenWeb Inc. Claims Ownership of The USGenWeb Project Pages:
At this point, the Board decided to remove The USGenWeb
Project website from the usgenweb.com domain. Project members
with authorized password access to the server did so on March
21, 1998. The Board also requested that all Project volunteers
change any links on their websites from usgenweb.com to either
usgenweb.org or usgenweb.net which are hosted by Rootsweb. To
the best of our knowledge, this request has been accepted by
volunteers with at the most, minimal discontent.

Unfortunately, after these changes were made (i.e., removing
the national website), Jerry Dill of USGenWeb, Inc. then
stated that the corporation owned The USGenWeb Project
pages, that the pages were removed illegally, and that they had
been mirrored at usgenweb.net and usgenweb.org on the RootsWeb
server only with permission. This was outrageous and totally
unacceptable news to the Advisory Board. It would be tantamount
to a parking garage claiming ownership of your car if you parked
it in their facility.

Confusion Caused by Format of usgenweb.com Site:
Since then, the usgenweb.com site has made several changes
to webpages there, the most recent being a webpage displaying
The USGenWeb Project map with links to the states and
a page related to The On-line Census Project. The Advisory Board
has requested *in writing* that those pages be removed. The Board
feels that the posting of those pages on that domain name continues
to be a source of confusion to the genealogical community, implying
that there is some connection between USGenWeb, Inc. and The
USGenWeb Project. We want to do everything possible to assure
that the level of confusion is reduced. This announcement is
part of that effort.

Recent Actions of The USGenWeb Advisory
Board:
1. The formation of two committees: Elections Committee and
By-Laws/Website Standards Committee. While informal discussion
of this has been ongoing, these have only just been formed (the
names aren't even official yet), but plans are to include additional non-board volunteers as members to be involved with the processes of both.

2. Other issues seem to constantly sidetrack any progress
the Board is making in getting anything done. We are continually
called upon to try to *put out fires* created by inflammatory
messages to several of the lists. For the record, decisions announced by the national coordinator are made only after consulting the Board.

3. Investigation of "Unincorporated Nonprofit Association"
status. We are trying to learn whether every state has such an
act. "Nonprofit Association" means an unincorporated
organization, other than one created by a trust, consisting of
three or more members joined by mutual consent for a common,
nonprofit purpose.

If you have comments about The USGenWeb Project or would like to report administrative-type problems, please email the
National Coordinator. If you have a complaint regarding a specific web site which cannot be addressed by contacting the coordinator in charge, please include the URL address when emailing the National Coordinator.

If you have comments and/or suggestions about this particular web site, please contact the Webmaster.